By SJ Otto
There is nothing positive about a group of right-wing
militia men taking over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge facility, in
Oregon. These groups have two main issues; one that they want the wild life
refuge land turned over to them for their own private use and they are upset
about two ranchers, accused of arson, who have been sent back to jail for
another three years.
The issue of the Father and son ranchers, Dwight and Steven
Hammond, seems to be their only real issue. It is questionable that these two
should spend more time in jail than they already have.
According to CNN
the two said they started a fire in 2001 to reduce the growth of invasive
plants and to protect their property from wildfires, CNN affiliate KTVZ-TV
reported, but that the fire got out of hand. Prosecutors said they set fires to
cover up poaching.
The Militia people already believe they are above the law. Rancher
Cliven Bundy –was involved in a standoff with the government over grazing
rights in Nevada in 2014. Bundy owned money for grazing rights. He refused to
pay and he refused to take his cattle off the government land. The government
backed down and did nothing. That may have encouraged the rebellion today.
These people found they can intimidate the government with their arms.
These militia people already talk of the Federal Government
as a kind of occupying force that they don’t believe in. That has been the cry
of the far-right Tea Party, which has been coopted into the Republican Party.
They only seem to believe in local and state government.
Many have also stated that guns are not just for hunting and
self-defense.
They are also for “standing up to tyranny,” which seems to
mean branches of the US government that they don’t approve of.[i]
Many of the militia are racist and oppose the religious rights
of others. Ammon Bundy is a leader of the group and his father Clive Bundy made
racist remarks indicating that black people would be better off as slaves
picking cotton rather than being on welfare.
As seen on a CNN
video he said;
"They
abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they
never learned how to pick cotton.
"And I've
often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a
family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?
They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
Another of these militia men, according to CNN, is
Jon
Ritzheimer, is an avowed anti-Islamist and former Marine who served in
Iraq. In 2014 he organized a protest outside a Phoenix Islamic community center
during which he wore a T-shirt that said, "F--- Islam." He said his
goal was to provoke.
There is also the perception by many that these people are
being coddled and treated with kid gloves while the Black Lives Matter movement
has been penalized for far less than what's happening at the wildlife refuge.
If these were Muslims or black, the law enforcement response would be
different, others
argued.
We have to wonder why these people think they deserve free
land? If they do, what about the rest of us? Do we all deserve free land from
the federal government? And what about the wild life there? Shouldn’t we demand
that our wild life heritage be defended? The militias want to open logging in this area. That would destroy what is left of our country’s
tallest and oldest trees. Without defending these trees, they may become extinct.
For the most part this is a right-wing insurrection. The federal
government is afraid of them and they may even sympathize with these people. The
federal government may end up just abandoning these lands and their commitment
to wild life preservation. That is not what we want or deserve.
[i] See Awr
Hawkins:
"It isn’t about hunting — never has been, never will be. The 2nd Amendment wasn’t given to us to protect our right to duck or deer hunt but to defend our lives and our property and to repel tyranny, period.”
"It isn’t about hunting — never has been, never will be. The 2nd Amendment wasn’t given to us to protect our right to duck or deer hunt but to defend our lives and our property and to repel tyranny, period.”
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